Aerogel, aka “frozen smoke” is a light, porous, nearly translucent, matrix of silica, made by removing the liquid part of a gel. Aerogels can also be made from metals and from carbon. Graphene versions of aerogel offer intriguing combinations of strength and electrical conductivity. Lawrence Livermore Laboratory is working on a process that uses 3D printing with graphene oxide inks to create specifically architectured structures that are then transformed into graphene aerogels.

A new type of graphene aerogel will make for better energy storage, sensors, nanoelectronics, catalysis and separations.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researchers have made graphene aerogel microlattices with an engineered architecture via a 3D printing technique known as direct ink writing. The research appears in the April 22 edition of the journal, Nature Communications.

The 3D printed graphene aerogels have high surface area, excellent electrical conductivity, are lightweight, have mechanical stiffness and exhibit supercompressibility (up to 90 percent compressive strain). In addition, the 3D printed graphene aerogel microlattices show an order of magnitude improvement over bulk graphene materials and much better mass transport.